Branding OHIO through new marketing materials

Before the end of the academic year, the President invited the University community to participate in a survey to help determine the future direction of OHIO’s brand messaging and advertisements.

The survey was completed and the results are in. There were a total of 1,077 responses. Of those, 366 preferred "Discover Your OU," 645 preferred "All You Imagine," and 66 indicated no preference. Some of the comments on the survey focused on the quality of the images or the specific individuals portrayed in the materials. None of the images were final and at the present there are no approved visuals or messages. While some of you may have found it somewhat difficult to judge the creative materials in their concept phase, please know your feedback will be used to guide our work in developing OHIO's next generation of promotional materials.

Our goal is for the new creative materials to highlight the unique experience and advantage that all of our students – traditional and nontraditional, residential and regionally located – receive as a result of attending Ohio University. In addition to student-focused pieces, materials will be created to speak to other important stakeholders, such as prospective faculty and staff members.

To that end, University Communications and Marketing will be facilitating dialogue and hosting meetings with groups representing our colleges, regional campuses, and various units across the University. As we find ourselves in a continuous cycle of competitiveness, it is mission critical for OHIO to show distinction and value. Sharpening our message provides us with a major opportunity to become the transformative learning community we envision.

Receiving feedback on the conceptual ideas was the easy part. The real work begins now as we continue to consider the feedback and begin developing the pieces. During the course of this academic year, our work with various groups on all of our campuses will be aimed to get it right.

Stay tuned to this column for updates on this important initiative and visit our brand site at www.ohio.edu/brand for resources to help you with your communication needs.

Brand Site Updates

By Mark Krumel

To build a powerful brand, it is important to maintain consistency in communications. Ohio University's brand website, www.ohio.edu/brand, was developed by University Communications and Marketing with that in mind. Our goal is to make periodic updates to the site to provide tools that will help us present OHIO with a consistent voice. Some of the most recent updates available for use by all colleges, campuses, offices and departments across the University are outlined below:

The presentation sets page has templates that reflect the visual and style standards that reinforce OHIO’s brand identity:

All of the templates have been designed for universal access to use with both PC and MAC platforms. It is our hope that readily available tools will enable you to be efficient with your time as well as enhance your communications visually. In addition, you will help us advance the OHIO brand.

We encourage you to use them and let us know how they help or if you have suggestions for modifications or additional templates. As partners, we will not only develop a better way to work but we will also build a better brand.